Second Opinion [IC]

[Electra]

Miss A frowned, both at the problem as a whole and at the mention of self-prescribed anti-psychotics. Well, there was nothing to be done about that at this point except to try and supervise the step-down process. "Are you saying that you were inventing things that you had no memory of later?" she asked. "Do you know if any of those inventions reached the production stage, or were they all just specs when you woke, as far as you know?" The idea of a deranged Doktor Archeville creating weapons of destruction was not only personally chilling, but could be a public relations disaster that would destroy his company.

[Fox]

Dragonfly went back to the scans while Miss Americana talked, keeping an ear on the conversation but otherwise turning her attention to the available data. Really, part of the problem was that she was too used to seeing her brain - perfect memory or not, looking for commonalities and differences wasn't as easy without putting the two side-by-side. could? - no - too many questions - not that hard - concentrate

She chewed her lip, studying, and periodically linking up to the nearest available semi-secured computer to look up a thing or two and trying to remember to not get so involved that she missed anything that was said.

[Dr Archeville]

"Just the 'drawing board' stage," he reassured, though whether it was more to reassure Miss A and Dragonfly or himself was not entirely clear. "I do maintain sufficient meta-awareness of my own mental processes that I have managed to stop myself short of building any of these devices, or of actually doing anything harmful. Unfortunately, my meta-awareness, my ability to see and edit my own mental processes, was not refined enough to prevent me from having such thoughts in the first place."

I wonder if Dragonfly or Miss Americana can do the 'mental shifting' things I can do? They seem smart enough that they could.

Some of the scans Dragonfly looked at did show some similarities to her own brain scans: extreme intellectual enhancement, particularly in technical areas, to extremes far higher than her own. But others showed a very different picture: areas corresponding to social interactions (like the scarred ones in her own brain) were massively stimulated, while the intellectual and technical comprehension areas were slightly diminished, to levels merely comparable to her own ability. And yet others showed massive stimulation in the sensory centers and areas concerning self-identity and strength of will. Most bizarrely, one showed massive activity in the areas pertaining to pattern recognition, coordination, and spatial orientation, with some lesser stimulation of the sensory areas.

First group's his brain on Enhanced Intelligence, second is Enhanced Charisma, third is Enhanced Wisdom, and fourth is one of his combat-centric tentacle-brain APs.

[Electra]

Miss A considered the scans once more. "If you're amenable," she told the Doktor, "I'd like to see some real-time brainwave monitoring done, preferably over a period of time. Watching your brain in the process of making the shifts that it does would likely prove more elucidating than these static pictures we have available now, and we all know that the lab is not always the best place to get a good look at normal life activity." She smiled slightly. "A few microelectrodes under your hair and a miniaturized transmitter should do nicely, and you'll hardly even know you're wearing it."

[Fox]

Dragonfly nodded, glancing back at Miss Americana as she spoke. "Good suggestion. Better data...always preferable to see things in real-time. Or recorded real-time. Almost as good, much more convenient. Shift is...where I would be concerned. Brain activity is pushing to extremes, but always different extremes. Transition may be fine if the mind's...adapted to handle it." From her pausing and vague hand gestures she was clearly using words that didn't quite mean what she wanted them to, but were serviceable as best approximations. "But not sure it would be easy on you, adapted or not. A lot of stress to put on a brain."

[Dr Archeville]

"It was quite difficult at first," he said, scratching his chin idly. "First time was... ah...." His voice trailed off.

Come on, you can tell them! They are your colleagues, they want to help!

He cleared his throat before resuming, "When I was thirteen, in mathematics class, the teacher told me I had made a mistake in one of the problems the class was working on. I... I felt like a storm broke in my mind, and I jumped on the professor and attacked him, pounding at his pressure points with my fists, then hitting him with the teacher's edition of the class textbook, and his chair. Some of the other students tried to stop me, but I assaulted them, too. Two of the boys had to be taken to the school nurse, and the Professor had to be taken to the hospital. The investigation into the event revealed that the mistake was in fact the Professor's, not mine, which was what precipitated my assault. That night was the night my father tried to-" He paused again, cleared his throat, smoothed his shirt, "after that I researched techniques to control myself, to be more accepting of unpredicted challenges, to 'go with the flow.' Which lead to improved social interactions, as the studies I had made of my own psyche have allowed some insight into the psyches of others, and how best to act and react with a given subject in order to evoke or provoke certain reactions. Over the years, the mental 'gear-shifting' has become easier, but it does still take a few seconds to do so."

There, now, that was not so bad!

"And, yes, real-time monitoring would be ideal. Oh, speaking of adaptations and changes," he tilted to the side slightly to get a better look at Dragonfly and her study of his brainscans, "it may be worth noting that my abilities are not metahuman in nature, or, rather, that all tests I have taken for the presence of active metahuman genetics have proved negative."

[Fox]

Dragonfly...really didn't say anything for a while. She just sort of gave Dr. Archeville a blank, slack look as he described his childhood. Several times in the entirely too long silent period after he'd finished she looked like she was going to say something, and then stopped and gestured like she couldn't quite come up with appropriate words.

So she gave up trying. "....two things. Thing one: will not need that much detail about psychotic breaks in the future, ever, unless requested. Thing two: don't recall violent outbursts or alarmingly uncontrolled sociopathic behavior in previous list of symptoms, which I am...hoping means they stopped while you were still adolescent. Otherwise have several major concerns about your safety and the safety of people around you, especially considering status and resources at your disposal."

[Electra]

Miss Americana pursed her lips and thought about what to say long enough for Dragonfly to blurt out what she was actually thinking. Trying to finesse the situation, she said carefully, "It is definitely a troubling case history, but it's obviously been under control for some time. You're certainly right to be concerned about a change in your behavior patterns after this long, beneficial as they may seem on the surface. If we could get real-time scans of you for several weeks, ideally in combination with a log you keep of your own activities, thoughts and feelings to correlate with mental shifts, I think we could get some definitive answers."

[Dr Archeville]

The women's discomfort increased his own discomfort, but he soldiered on. "That was my only such outburst, yes," he reassured,"all others have been strictly verbal outbursts -- the most visible outlet I have given to the dark Other within me, or, hopefully, that was within me -- and the aforementioned sleep-designing. But the verbal outbursts were few; I have become fairly adept at concealing all the horrible, horrible thoughts that ran through my head."

They seemed to take this about as well as I expected. Yay!

He softly cleared his throat again, "in an odd way, though, I have all my problems to thank for all the good I have done: I became a hero not just clear my family's name, which my grandfather dragged through the mud (and my father's own fall did not help)," he added in a lowered tone, "but also to give me some beneficial goals to focus on, a safe outlet for my energies."

If the Other compelled me to beat on people, at least I was able to channel it so I only beat on people who deserved it!

"Now, as for your plan: I do think long-term monitoring would be ideal, and is a project I have wanted to do for some years. But thus far it has been a technique I have been unable to implement," he cocked his head ever so slightly, "I wonder if my Other was subtly influencing me, setting up a mental block so that I could no do so? In any case," he clapped his hands sharply, "I am hoping that the three of us working together can resolve this issue!"

[Fox]

Dragonfly frowned, tapping a finger against her leg. Honestly, she was glad to have the engineering challenge to distract her from the fairly disturbing anecdote. "Constant monitoring...live, reliable, resilient. Probably best if it's subtle. Implanted pins would be ideal, but probably not for your comfort?" She glanced over at the Doktor, tilting her head. "....no, probably not. Surface electrodes, then. Fairly sure there are some on the medical floor, if we have none here. Used some on the psychic-radar goats. Seemed effective."

[Electra]

"It shouldn't be a problem," Miss A assured the doctor. "I think I have everything here we'll need, if you'll just stretch out on my table for a few minutes." It did take a bit longer than a few minutes, but not by much. In less than an hour, the doctor was fitted up with a nearly-invisible double ring of electrodes fastened to his scalp, each one broadcasting wirelessly to the monitoring station in Miss A's lab. "The adhesive should be good for two weeks," she told him, "as long as you have a care when you're in the shower. Come back in ten days and I'll remove all the hardware and we'll have a look at the results."

[Dr Archeville]

Archeville admired the work for some minutes, "excellent work, both of you! And it does not muss my hair!" he chuckled.

With a bit of creative styling, I could probably hide this completely. No one would know I have it on!

"So, it broadcasts to here," he turned at last from the mirror and approached the monitoring station, "but we will not look at the results until after the two weeks? Can it not be used to monitor my mental activity in real time, set an alarm in case of any spikes of activity outside of certain parameters?"

If something happens, I would want them to know as soon as possible, so they can help me!

"Speaking of parameters," he finally faced Dragonfly and Miss A, "shall we run some tests before I go, see what it reads when I perform some of my routine edits to my meta-intellect?"

[Fox]

"Hard to set parameters if the point is that your brain is so atypical," Dragonfly pointed out with a raised eyebrow. "Could, of course - not that hard to write a small program to watch the feed. Imagine incoming data will be monitored, but if looked at too early may not have enough information to analyze."

She tilted her head, crossing her arms and tapping a finger against her arm. "That said: would be useful to get information in a controlled environment. Truly test our monitoring abilities. And, if not necessarily set parameters, at least a starting idea of what constitutes 'normal' brain use."

[Electra]

"Yes, we'll definitely have monitors on in real time, but it will take a few days to establish enough of a pattern to understand what your normal mental states are like," Miss A told him. "There will be certain things we look for, spikes in brain chemicals, adrenaline surges, limbic spikes, but in general Dragonfly is perfectly correct in that your atypical neural function would render our typical baselines meaningless. Doing some tests right now is an excellent idea. It will allow us both to get initial readings and to calibrate the equipment more precisely." She moved over to a bank of monitors and brought up displays of Doktor Archeville's brain in real time. "Go ahead whenever you're ready."

[Dr Archeville]

"As your fellow Lab-mate Supercape might say," he clapped and smiled, "'capital idea!'"

Hooray for science! And I am the subject -- what a twist!

"What it reads now is my 'face' mind, the frame of mind most people see me in at board meetings and business dinners." He straightened up slightly, smoothed out his (transgenic spider-goat) silk shirt, and walked across the room with the confident assurance that they had both seen in him numerous times. "And now," he stopped, but kept himself turned away from them. A moment later, he turned around, and they noted a severe shift in him. He was slightly stooped over, head down, and moved in short bursts, practically leaping from one workstation to the next. The monitor showed a massive flood of activity in the frontal lobe, and a similar but slightly lesser flood in the parietal lobe. Dragonfly knew these areas well: they were the ones that had been enhanced in her own brain to make her so good at what she does. She also noted a decrease in activity in certain areas, a pattern she had seen in brainscans of people suffering from assorted social anxiety disorders. Checking back on Archeville, he was tinkering with one of the prosthetic arms on Miss A's workbench, mumbling as he swapped out and rearranged components.

Move this part here and that there to decease heat build up and increase battery life; replace this with two of these for a 15% increase in power; route that through there and you could electrify the limb; still some room for more add-ons -- grappling hook, laser, pen, flashlight, buzzsaw, screwdriver, drill bits, laser microphone, hypodermic needles, derringer-sized firearm, smoke pellets, tear gas pellets, food pellets, painkillers...

[Fox]

Dragonfly frowned at the live scans, tilting her head and biting her lip at parts of the Doktor's brain lit up or shut down. that...shouldn't happen "Zero-sum system," she noted, mostly to herself. "Shuts down to focus activity in....mmmh. Dangerous. But interesting. Probably kept him from burning his brain out by now." She glanced over at the 'patient', tapping her finger and trying to bring up knowledge that was frustratingly absent. "Going to have to do a lot of research over the next two weeks. Very...odd. Can see what it's doing...almost how. But hard to imagine how it'd be possible to...alter the brain to allow for it. Very strange."

[Electra]

Miss A let out a sound very like a yelp, hastening towards the strangely altered man. "Please don't, that's a prototype..." she began, then sighed. The damage was already done, or whatever it was he was doing was done. She'd just expense the damn thing next time she submitted an invoice to ArcheTech. "All right, I think we've got a decent set of scans for that particular... mental state. Can you give us another one?" Despite the small frustration, her curiosity was piqued.

[Dr Archeville]

"Oh?," his head snapped around with bird-like quickness. "Ah, yes, of course..."

The Doktor closed his eyes, and concentrated again. His posture straightened, the twitching in his hands stopped, and his breaths came slower and more evenly. His hands went up in a fluid motion and smoothed out the brief case of Einstein hair he had been manifesting a moment earlier.

mmmmm

The scanners showed activity in the frontal lobe decreased to the levels originally detected, and while the parietal lobe became less stimulated, it still 'ran hotter' than it had during the initial scan. And now the occipital lobes (visual processing) and parts of the temporal lobes (the parts associated with perception/recognition of auditory stimuli) flared up, as did parts of the limbic system (specifically, the parts associated with sensory processing/interpretation). A closer look revealed some sections of the frontal lobes were still more active: the sections dealing with social problem solving.

He looked down at the arm, then over to Miss Americana. A serene look was upon him, and when he spoke, his voice was calm and even. "I do apologize for my actions a moment ago -- as you saw, my desire to tinker and improve things sometimes gets the better of me."

[Fox]

Dragonfly winced as she saw Miss Americana's reaction to the tinkering, and shook her head a little as she tried to keep an eye on the scans. know the feeling - both sides - tinkering - people messing with your things - unpleasant "It happens," she noted, as she was apparently more than familiar with sudden compulsions to mess with technology; all the same, Miss Americana got a sympathetic glance. "Seem to be....social? I think," she observed, turning back to the information coming in through the computer. "Specialized. Diplomacy?"

[Dr Archeville]

"Not quite," he replied in that eerily, preternaturally calm tone.

Ohmmmmm

"The mental state I typically run in public -- the one I was using when we first used this device to read my mind -- emphasizes interpersonal intelligence, particularly the ability to influence people by playing on their moods, feelings, temperaments and motivations. This iteration," he crossed the room back to exam table, hopped up on it, and settled into a lotus position, "emphasizes my sensitivity to the feelings and moods of others, in part through an enhanced sensory acuity, and in part through an increased empathic faculty. It also increased my intrapersonal intelligence, my introspective and self-reflective capacities, which reinforces my comprehension of self to prevent manipulation by telepathic or other mental manipulations."

Ohmmmmm

[Electra]

"So a focus on the empathic mind then, but at how much of a sacrifice of the intellect?" Miss A murmured, highlighting points on the display, and not so much asking him as herself. Perhaps spending time around Dragonfly was something of a bad influence on her. "How much did you put this facility for mental shifting to use in dealing with your schizophrenia?" she asked him. "Did you have a specific mental pattern you fell into when you experienced the dissociative episodes, and if so, were you able to alter your brain chemistry to stop them?"

[Dr Archeville]

"As much as loss as when I am use my 'face' iteration," he said calmly, "which is to say, I am merely as gifted as the great Daedalus, at least when it comes to scientific and technical matters, both theoretical and experimental, development and construction." He said this without the slightest hint of pride. "However, in matters historical and theological, he is by far my superior."

Ohmmmmm

"These mental edits were the first direct steps I took in trying to excise or at least contain my assorted mental problems," he replied, "after the counselors and therapists in the schools proved unable to help. Though my intellect was part of the problem -- I could easily figure out what they wanted to hear, what they were looking for in their tests and games. And I told them what they would need to hear to proclaim me sane and stable, though to this day I am not certain if it was manipulation by my Other, or by myself, fearful of the stigma associated with mental illness." He slowly rolled his head around, working out some kinks in his neck from the bird-like darting he'd done moments ago. "I added psychology to the host of topics I was already studying, and began working on myself. In time I came to know my mind as a programming language, one that is meta-self-descriptive and -self-editing. Not only can it describe thought, it can describe and modify its own operations as well, at all levels, where modifying a statement causes the entire grammar to be adjusted. With this language, I could see how my mind was operating, perceive the gestalts, see the mental structures forming, interacting. I see myself thinking, and I see the equations that describe my thinking, and I see myself comprehending the equations, and I see how the equations describe their being comprehended. And yet..."

Ohmmm... mmm... mmm... Ohmmm...

His voice trailed off, and he was silent a moment, eyes half open. He sighed heavily, then looked to Dragonfly and Miss A. "As with any software application, errors can arise due to semantic errors in the code. And all my attempts at debugging have, thus far, proved fruitless. It was only in the past few years that I have attempted to address this from a hardware issues, not just a software one, with psychopharmaceuticals."

[Fox]

Dragonfly frowned as she listened, tap-tap-tapping her finger against her arm as she tried to wrap her brain around...Doctor Archeville wrapping his brain around Doctor Archeville wrapping his brain around brain-wrapping. "Am...impressed," she admitted, slipping a hand under the edge of her visor to rub one of her temples. "Very interesting technique, and can't have been easy. Even less easy to do without killing yourself or causing irreparable damage to brain functions. Demonstrates extreme intelligence and motivation and focus."

[Electra]

"It's a fascinating capability, and one worth exploring in more depth," Miss A finally said, after a moment of reverie. The idea was so striking, so profound, that she spent several very long seconds processing it, interpolating it, comparing it to her own mental processes and streams of consciousness. It was quite tempting to linger with the idea for awhile and let the outside world pass by, but she was working right now, and it would wait. "Unfortunately the problem that you've run into is the problem every programmer finds when he attempts to clean a computer with a pervasive virus. A clever virus will keep the infected computer from being able to spot all instances of infection, and thus renders it unable to cure itself. Hopefully with us standing in for your outside debugging hardware, we'll see if there's anything lingering that could present you with problems in the future."

[Dr Archeville]

"Thank you," he said, smiling serenely and giving a little bow. "I had hoped, of course, that these techniques could help others as well as myself. Alas, I have been unable to pass on these lessons... but, perhaps, one of you would be interested? I believe you both have what it takes, and could benefit from the techniques."

Ohmmmmm

"Yes, the virus analogy is certainly apt," he agreed, "particularly in that it seems to have passed from host to host, back over a dozen generations, as best my research can tell. And so, as enlightening at this iteration of my mind is, perhaps it is time for another shift, yes?" He began to unfold himself from his lotus position.